The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that over one million vehicles were stolen in the US in each of the years 1998, 1999 and 2000. Auto theft is a $7.5 billion annual industry costing insurance companies and consumers around $20 million per day. The FBI reports that about one-third of stolen vehicles were never recovered and only 14% of the perpetrators were ever caught in 2000.
Consumers spent about $227 million in 2001 for electronic devices to protect automobiles from theft, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. These devices include alarms, keyless entry systems, and vehicle tracking devices with hidden transmitters. Unfortunately, many of these devices and related services for tracking a stolen vehicle require an owner or driver of the vehicle to recognize promptly that a vehicle has been stolen and then to call the police and record the incident, or call a telematics call center to track or disable the vehicle. The owner or driver may not realize the vehicle has been stolen until hours have passed when location and return of the vehicle becomes less likely.
For a vehicle security system to be most effective, it needs to be actively monitored and available 24 hours a day and seven days a week. The active monitoring of a vehicle helps to thwart a thief at the point where the vehicle is being entered and the unauthorized driver is trying to start the vehicle.
It would be beneficial for the security system to leverage current automobile equipment and services. Automotive industry projections indicate that by 2006 almost all new American cars will include telematics equipment providing some level of telematics service. Drivers already can call telematics call centers to receive navigational, concierge, emergency, and location services, as well as other specialized help such as locating the geographical position of a vehicle when it has been stolen. Newer and more convenient security system and service that leverages current automotive equipment such as an in-vehicle telematics unit would help in auto-theft deterrent and recovery without the need of aftermarket equipment. The telematics vehicle security system may provide daily relevance for owners and subscribers of telematics services.
To effectively combat a vehicle theft, a vehicle security method and system should quickly identify an alleged intrusion and generate a response from the telematics call center to the police, car owner, or vehicle intruder. Ideally, this vehicle security system would provide the capability to render a vehicle inoperable without a prescribed authorization of the owner or driver. In addition, the system would alert the owner, law authorities or another security service as to the location of the vehicle. Even if the automobile were somehow started or moved, the system would be able to track the vehicle so that law authorities could recover it.
It is an object of this invention, therefore, to provide a telematics vehicle security system and method to authorize the use of a mobile vehicle using the infrastructure of an in-vehicle telematics unit, a communications network, and a telematics service call center, and to overcome the challenges and obstacles described above.